Green Hair Algae battleplan?


  • Total voters
    160
OP
OP
Raege

Raege

I’m a leaf on the wind watch me soar
View Badges
Joined
May 9, 2018
Messages
4,208
Reaction score
29,379
Location
Western Ma
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Interesting test. Not a lot of connect the dots as to what is truly good vs bad as of yet but a nice snapshot to be sure. It was funny seeing my tank high on diversity of types of bac but the Alteromonadaceae being like 95% volume wise. It makes sense since those thrive in a higher nutrient environ which the tank definitely was when I sent this sample both in po4 and no3.
With no3 around 20ish and po4 back to .05 ( real #’s are higher with the gha of course atm) be interesting next sample results tho once some more dies off.
I get an email in a few days with Eli’s impressions of my sample so looking forward to sharing that.
I have been geeking out checking out the different info on bac families Who knows his to oartz on a Thursday night? This guy lol
 
OP
OP
Raege

Raege

I’m a leaf on the wind watch me soar
View Badges
Joined
May 9, 2018
Messages
4,208
Reaction score
29,379
Location
Western Ma
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
EB850FB8-A3FB-4A65-984E-FD003A052E74.jpeg


Hi Ray,

I'm writing to follow up on this automated email and share my perspective on your results.

(First let me apologize for the delay in getting this to you -- literally the day after I shipped this batch of samples to the sequencing facility, they sent out a notice that they'd been tasked with covid19 testing and sequencing services would be delayed. Interesting times!)

I'll start with diversity. Your tank had a high score, higher than a majority of tanks I've sampled. You're familiar with the debates on this subject, I'm sure -- how much diversity is needed? How much is enough? I won't claim to have an answer to those! Speaking for myself, I consider diversity beneficial, and would be happy with a score like this in my tanks. I'd feel confident ruling out low diversity as an explanation for any problems in the tank.

In contrast, your balance score was low. In other words, focusing on the major families of Bacteria and Archaea that are present in a typical aquarium, we find that these are present at very different levels in your tank than in the "typical" (average) tank.

Overall, your tank has the diversity of a healthy tank, but the levels of the different families are very different than expected. There is a bloom of one type dominating the community. You can see this clearly in the community barplot (part 2 in the report), in fact this way of graphing it kind of exaggerates the effect (the other families are present at low levels, but barely visible).

Your tank is dominated by Alteromonadaceae. These are a normal part of the aquarium microbiome, but typically they make up a minor fraction of the community. In your sample, the great majority of DNA sequences came from this single family. In fact, 99% of them were a single type, a member of the family not identified below the Family level (i.e. its in the database, but no one has assigned a genus or species name). Regardless of the specific identity, this is the classic signature of a bloom -- a single bacterial type that increases in abundance until it dominates the community.

These free living heterotrophic bacteria can live on a wide range of nutrients including many different sugars and amino acids, and are especially known for blooming in high glucose conditions. When a bloom occurs in a saltwater aquarium, this is one of the most common groups to bloom.

What does this mean? Does it matter? The different groups metabolize different nutrients, so we can infer that your tank will have a different capacity for processing nutrients (in the broad sense) than a tank with a more typical community. So I would only want to adjust the community balance if my tank was not processing nutrients in the way I wanted (e.g. if I had nuisance algae growth, cyano, etc). I will say that adding live mud was effective for reducing the dominance of this group, and promoting increases in the relative abundance of the others, in my tanks.

Nitrifying microbes -- your tank had high levels of ammonia-oxidizing microbes (AOM), and also plenty of nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB). In many tanks the NOB are present at such low levels they are not detectable, so I interpret your results as an aquarium with relatively large nitrifying communities compared to many tanks.

Your tank shows no evidence of cyanobacteria, or any known pathogens of coral or fish in your tank. In addition to the known pathogens (what is described in the report), I also checked your sample for the bacteria associated with the Caribbean disease SCTLD, and only found one of these (Planktotalea sp.), which is found in a large fraction of tanks (16%) including some of mine. I do not think this bacterium by itself is a cause for concern. So overall, after your recent tank crash, I find no evidence of any bacterial
pathogens. One thing we can check off the list, at least.

I hope this was useful and will be happy to discuss further,

-Eli

Very cool getting his thoughts! Didn’t know he did this
I sent a couple questions will share those once he has a chance to reply.
 

RichtheReefer21

Scrap Yard Reefer
View Badges
Joined
Jun 11, 2018
Messages
8,766
Reaction score
49,642
Location
Western Massachusetts
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
That is some serious customer service right there. And it appears you may have found the smoking gun for your battle with nitrates too it seems due to the dominance established by the ammonia-consuming population. That is some sweet info. @Fudsey this may be a possible soirce for the issues you ran inti months ago with no3 as well. Something to consider anyways.

Very cool Ray.
 
OP
OP
Raege

Raege

I’m a leaf on the wind watch me soar
View Badges
Joined
May 9, 2018
Messages
4,208
Reaction score
29,379
Location
Western Ma
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
TGIF! Well my friends should be a good reefing weekend. Two orders coming in today with some reef goods then another small order Wednesday. Bought a lens cover set for taking pics, co2 reactor, color changing media, calibration fluids for ph meter, all in one alk ca mix, live Florida mud to encourage some different bacteria’s to increase colony sizes! Played with a time lapse of nem today, planning on capturing the light ramp up tomorrow hopefully.

 

RichtheReefer21

Scrap Yard Reefer
View Badges
Joined
Jun 11, 2018
Messages
8,766
Reaction score
49,642
Location
Western Massachusetts
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
TGIF! Well my friends should be a good reefing weekend. Two orders coming in today with some reef goods then another small order Wednesday. Bought a lens cover set for taking pics, co2 reactor, color changing media, calibration fluids for ph meter, all in one alk ca mix, live Florida mud to encourage some different bacteria’s to increase colony sizes! Played with a time lapse of nem today, planning on capturing the light ramp up tomorrow hopefully.


So cool how Sunset manipulates the nems place in the tank. Thanks for sharing and im lookin forward to the pics with the new filter ;)
 
OP
OP
Raege

Raege

I’m a leaf on the wind watch me soar
View Badges
Joined
May 9, 2018
Messages
4,208
Reaction score
29,379
Location
Western Ma
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
So cool how Sunset manipulates the nems place in the tank. Thanks for sharing and im lookin forward to the pics with the new filter ;)
I’m going to put Sunset up for sale. 2000.oo bucks very rare mix breed Marroon clown and Sand Goby. :p
 
OP
OP
Raege

Raege

I’m a leaf on the wind watch me soar
View Badges
Joined
May 9, 2018
Messages
4,208
Reaction score
29,379
Location
Western Ma
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I know I don't really test but I do understand this stuff, I ran computer controlled pharmaceutical production plants for 14 years, that is a really nice trend slowly up. :)
Someday I hope to be testing less. You my friend have developed a much deeper relationship with your reef. Your eyes do your testing for you. Impressive the skill built up over years to learn the language of a reef and know what the sulky coral is telling you and other experienced reefers.
I’ll always like the geeky numbers but someday hope not to need em to know when to act.
 

najer

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 9, 2016
Messages
20,453
Reaction score
144,448
Location
Humble, England
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Someday I hope to be testing less. You my friend have developed a much deeper relationship with your reef. Your eyes do your testing for you. Impressive the skill built up over years to learn the language of a reef and know what the sulky coral is telling you and other experienced reefers.
I’ll always like the geeky numbers but someday hope not to need em to know when to act.

Thank you, I am still picking up the pieces a bit but it really helps to just observe, people might look at their tanks but miss the subtle changes, people should do water changes, less but they can be a good thing.
People should test, find what is ok and observe.
From the puddle earlier, 13.5 G no waterchanges and the tank runs a return pump, heater, powerhead and lights, how complicated does it have to be? ;)

DSC_0003 (1024x683).jpg


... and a fish! :)

DSC_0009 (1024x714).jpg
 
OP
OP
Raege

Raege

I’m a leaf on the wind watch me soar
View Badges
Joined
May 9, 2018
Messages
4,208
Reaction score
29,379
Location
Western Ma
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
You finally got your jap swallowtail. Best of luck moving forward ray. Fish frenzy!
It’s always been a toss up for reef friendly angel. The Wantanabei or swallowtail. In the end the Swallow tail fits the tank well and a female wantanabei would push limits and really should be kept in a pair from my reading.
Be nice to have some movement in the tank
 

Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

  • Ball valves.

    Votes: 38 47.5%
  • Gate valves.

    Votes: 42 52.5%
  • Check valves.

    Votes: 16 20.0%
  • None.

    Votes: 21 26.3%
  • Other.

    Votes: 8 10.0%
Back
Top